ill 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 
WASHINGTON  AND  LMCO 

ELTON  RAYMOND  SHAW 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://www.archive.org/details/loveaffairsofwasOOshaw 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 
WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

THE  BOYHOOD  AND   LOVE  AFFAIRS   OF 
WASHINGTON 


BY 
ELTON  RAYMOND  SHAW,  M.  A, 


SHAW  PUBLISHING   COMPANY 
BERWYN,  ILLINOIS 

(CHICAGO    SUBURB) 


Copyright,  1923 

By 

Elton  Raymond  Shaw 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


Other  Books  by  the  Same  Author 

The    Curse   of   Drink   or   Stories   of 

Hell's  Commerce 
At  the  Parting  of  the  Ways    (Pro- 
hibition) 
Patriotic  Temperance  Songs 
Prohibition:    Going  or  Coming? 
The  Man  of  Galilee 
Brains,  Dollars  and  Progress 
The  Conquest  of  the  Southwest. 


INTRODUCTION 

Each  year  the  coming  of  the 
shortest  month  carries  our  thots  back 
to  Washington  and  Lincoln  and 
their  times.  Most  people  are  in- 
terested in  American  history.  All 
of  us  should  be.  As  a  nation  we 
are  becoming  students  of  history 
more  and  more  each  year.  Our 
great  problem  is  how  to  study  it. 
School  text  books  are  not  always  the 
most  interesting  or  most  instructive. 
We  should  study  history  thru  biog- 
raphy. What  is  more  fascinating 
than  to  read  the  lives  of  great  men? 
All  the  important  events  of  history 
surround  the  lives  of  such  men,  but 
biography    is    not    always    what    it 

[5] 


INTRODUCTION 


should  be.  We  cannot  get  away 
from  our  prejudices.  We  are  too 
prone  to  idealize.  Human  interest 
stories  of  our  great  characters  are 
often  more  fiction  than  real  biog- 
raphy. Many  of  the  traits  which 
are  dealt  with  as  important  would 
be  more  easily  understood  if  we  gave 
more  thot  to  some  of  the  phases 
which  are  usually  omitted. 

The  tendency  to  idealize  our 
great  characters  has  led  us  to  leave 
out  many  of  the  human  frailties, 
erring  decisions,  and  the  peculiari- 
ties and  eccentricities  that  go  to 
show  that  our  leaders  have  been 
men  of  like  passions  as  we  are,  and 
that  they  were  altogether  human. 

There  are  many  books  on  Wash- 
es] 


INTRODUCTION 


ington  and  Lincoln.  Some  writers 
have  said  nothing  about  their  love 
affairs,  others  have  said  little,  and 
yet  nothing  is  more  interesting  than 
love.  It  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the 
world.  The  Sunday  editor  of  The 
Chicago  Tribune  says  people  are  al- 
ways interested  in  two  things — Love 
and  Money.  Of  course  we  cannot 
define  Love.  We  do  not  try.  Some- 
one had  this  in  mind  in  writing  the 
verse : 

"Here's  to  Love,  a  thing  divine, 
Description  doth  but  make  it  less. 

'Tis  what  we  feel  but  cant  define, 

'Tis    what    we    know    but    cant 

express?' 

And  yet  nothing  is   simpler.      It 

is    elemental.       The    most    learned 

[7] 


INTRODUCTION 


scholars  cannot  analyze  it,  yet  all 
of  us  can  apprehend  it.  After  all, 
the  profoundest  mysteries  are  the 
things  most  familiar  to  us.  What 
does  Psychology  know  about  Love? 
In  analyzing  the  mind  we  find  that 
in  reality  there  are  two  minds,  the 
objective  and  the  subjective.  The 
objective  mind  is  the  reasoning  mind 
— the  mind  which  makes  use  of  the 
five  senses.  The  subjective  is  the 
seat  of  the  emotions  and  the  finer 
sensibilities — the  abiding  place  of 
the  soul.  The  subjective  mind  can 
only  reason  deductively  while  the 
objective  mind  reasons  both  induc- 
tively and  deductively.  The  sub- 
jective mind  is  the  seat  of  joy,  am- 
bition, intuition  patriotism,  religion 

[8] 


INTRODUCTION 


and  love.  There  is  only  deductive 
reasoning  in  love!  It  is  an  emotion. 
But  we  feel  emotions  and  think 
about  emotions  and  talk  and  write 
stories  about  emotions.  What  would 
the  world  be  without  emotions? 

"May  those  now  love  who've  never 

loved  before 

And  those  who've  loved  now  love 

the  more" 

#    *    * 

"Folks  need  a  lot  of  loving  in  the 
morning; 
The  day  is  all  before  with  cares 
beset, 
The  cares  we  know  and  that  they  give 
no  warning , 
For  love   is   God' s  own   antidote 
for  fret. 

[9] 


INTRODUCTION 


"Folks  need  a  heap  of  loving  at  the 
noon-tide, 
In    the   battle   lull,   the   moment 
snatched  from  strife, 
Half  between   the  waking  and  the 
croon-time, 
While  bickering  and  worrying  are 
rife. 

"Folks  hunger  so  for  loving  at  the 
night-time, 
When    wearily    they    take    them 
home  to  rest; 
A  t  slumber-song-and-turning-out-the- 
light-time, 
Of  all  the  times  for  loving  that's 
the  best. 

[10] 


INTRODUCTION 


"Folks  want  a  lot  of  loving  every 
minute, 
The  sympathy  of  others,  and  their 
smile, 
Till  life  end;  from  the  minute  they 
begin  it, 
Folks  need  a  lot  of  loving  all  the 
while." 

—Strickland  Gilliland, 
In  "Including  You  and  Me" 


[11] 


THE    LOVE   AFFAIRS    OF 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  man  of 
sorrow.  He  was  born  in  a  degrada- 
tion, very  far  below  respectable 
poverty,  in  Hardin  (now  LaRue) 
County,  Kentucky,  three  miles  from 
Hodgensville.  He  lived  in  that 
poverty  thru  the  whole  of  his  child- 
hood. When  he  was  in  his  eighth 
year,  the  family  removed  to  the  state 
of  Indiana.  Before  he  was  ten  years 
of  age,  his  mother  died — the  first 
great  crushing  grief  and  sorrow  of 
his  life.  When  he  was  nineteen,  his 
only  sister  died,  under  very  distress- 
ing circumstances.    No  joy  or  pleas- 

[13] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


ure  of  childhood  entered  into  his 
young  life.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
enter  into  the  old  controversies  about 
Thomas  Lincoln  in  order  to  apprecia- 
ate  the  fact,  that,  when  Lincoln  was 
grown  into  manhood,  he  wanted  to 
get  away  from  the  thot  of  his  child- 
hood. Whether  the  father  was  ig- 
norant, worthless,  shiftless  or  illiter- 
ate and  not  in  sympathy  with  Abra- 
ham's eagerness  for  learning  to  write 
and  read  or  whether  he  was  indus- 
trious, saving,  and  feeling  keenly 
his  own  deficiency,  was  disposed  to 
give  his  son  every  possible  advan- 
tage in  the  way  of  gaining  an  edu- 
cation, the  fact  remains  that  the 
boy,  Abraham,  passed  thru  hard  ex- 
periences for  one  his  age.     He  did 

[14] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

not  want  to  live  his  childhood  over 
again.  Undoubtedly  his  childhood 
experiences  had  a  great  deal  to  do 
with  his   melancholy   disposition. 

The  first  of  the  sweethearts  was 
Polly  Richardson,  a  Kentucky  girl 
who,  with  her  parents  went  to  Gen- 
tryville,  Spencer  County,  Indiana,  in 
the  boyhood  of  Lincoln,  and  he  was 
not  only  the  first  youth  of  the  neigh- 
borhood with  whom  she  became  ac- 
quainted, but  he  became  the  beau 
who  escorted  her  to  many  of  the 
parties  and  other  social  fetes.  When 
the  Lincolns  abandoned  their  Indiana 
farm  and  went  on  to  Illinois,  Polly 
Richardson  disappeared  from  the 
pages   of  Lincoln   history. 

When    Lincoln    was    twenty-one 
[15] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


years  of  age,  he  moved  with  the 
family  to  Illinois  and,  leaving  the 
parental  home,  went  to  the  village 
of  New  Salem,  twenty  miles  north- 
west of  Springfield,  a  place  of  fifteen 
log  houses.  It  was  while  there  that 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Ann 
Rutledge;  Ann  was  the  daughter  of 
the  first  citizen  of  New  Salem,  who 
was  also  one  of  its  founders — James 
Rutledge.  Says  Herndon,  who  knew 
her:  "She  was  a  beautiful  girl — the 
most  popular  young  lady  in  the  vil- 
lage. One  of  her  strong  points  was 
her  dexterity  in  the  use  of  the  needle. 
At  every  quilting  Ann  was  a  neces- 
sary adjunct,  and  her  nimble  fingers 
drove  the  needle  swifter  than  any- 
one's  else.      Lincoln  used  to  escort 

[16] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

her  to  and  from  these  quilting  bees, 
and  on  one  occasion  even  went  into 
the  house." 

But  Ann  was  already  engaged  to 
a  successful  young  merchant  of  New 
Salem,  who  went  under  the  name  of 
McNeall,  but  whose  real  name  was 
McNamar.  He  had  left  NewT  Salem 
in  1834,  with  the  intention  of  re- 
turning soon;  but  he  delayed  and 
soon  stopped  writing  to  his  betrothed. 
Nobody  knew  what  had  become  of 
him  or  what  his  purposes  really  were. 
Ann  especially  was  in  doubt;  had  he 
deserted  her?  Anyhow  at  this  junc- 
ture, Lincoln  gradually  became  her 
suitor.  And  the  Rutledges  and  all 
New   Salem  encouraged  his  suit   as 

he   pleaded   and   pressed   his   cause. 

[17] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


McNamar's  unexplained  absence  en- 
couraged Lincoln  and  convinced 
Ann.  The  attachment  was  growing 
and  becoming  an  intense  and  mutual 
passion,  but  Ann  remained  firm  and 
almost  inflexible.  She  was  passing 
thru  another  fire.  She  could  not  dis- 
miss the  haunting  memory  of  her  old 
lover.  Ann  had  a  strongly  religious 
element  in  her  nature.  This  intensi- 
fied her  conflict.  Perhaps  she  had 
wronged  McNamar;  perhaps  he  loved 
her  still  and  she  was  loving  another. 
Yet  in  another  way  her  religious  na- 
ture gave  her  great  consolation.  Lin- 
coln had  become  engaged  to  her 
shortly  after  he  returned  from  his 
first  session  of  the  legislature  at  Van- 

dalia.   Yet  within  Ann's  bosom  raged 

[18] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

the  conflict  which  finally  undermined 
her  health.  The  ghost  of  McNamar 
would  often  rise  unbidden  before 
her.  A  fever  was  burning  in  her 
head.  She  called  for  Lincoln  con- 
tinuously. Her  physician  had  pre- 
scribed absolute  quiet  and  had  for- 
bidden visitors,  but  Lincoln  was 
finally  received.  On  his  arrival  at 
her  bedside,  the  door  was  closed. 
They  were  alone  and  what  was  said 
was  known  only  to  Lincoln  and  the 
dying  girl.  She  died  Aug.  25,  1835, 
of  typhoid  fever. 

The  death  of  Ann  Rutledge  drove 
Lincoln  into  a  condition  verging  to- 
ward insanity.  His  friendship  for 
Ann    had    meant    everything    to    his 

life.      It   was   his   first   contact   with 

[19] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


real  Christian  civilization.  She  had 
helped  him  in  grammar  and  to  study 
the  Bible  and  Shakespeare.  His  first 
earthly  joy  seemed  to  be  within  his 
grasp  and  then  it  was  gone.  "He 
had  fits  of  great  mental  depression/' 
says  Herndon,  "and  wandered  up 
and  down  the  river  and  into  the 
the  woods  woefully  abstracted — at 
times  in  the  deepest  distress.  His 
condition  finally  became  so  alarming 
that  his  friends  consulted  together 
and  sent  him  to  the  house  of  a  kind 
friend  who  lived  in  a  secluded  spot 
hidden  by  the  hills  a  mile  south  of 
town,  and  who  after  some  weeks 
brought  him  back  to  reason,  or  at 
least  a  realization  of  his  true  con- 
dition." 

[20] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Lincoln 
made  the  greatest  spiritual  transition 
of  his  life,  under  the  most  severe 
mental  and  emotional  strain.  He 
endured  the  strain  and  he  came  forth 
a  purified  soul  from  the  discipline  of 
love,  but  he  carried  the  mark  all  his 
life.  It  was  Herndon  who  said,  "The 
memory  of  Ann  Rutledge  was  the 
saddest  chapter  in  Mr.  Lincoln's 
life."  And  Herndon  told  of  how  Dr. 
Jason  Duncan  had  placed  in  Lin- 
coln's hands  the  poem  called  "Im- 
mortality." The  poem  starts  with 
the  line,  "Oh,  why  should  the  spirit 
of  mortal  be  proud?"  He  committed 
these  lines  to  memory  and  any  refer- 
ence to  or  suggestion  of  Miss  Rut- 
ledge  would  suggest  them.     As  late 

[21] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


as  March,  1864,  not  many  days  be- 
fore his  death,  he  repeated  the  lines 
with  a  strange  premonitory  pathos. 
The  poem  was  for  him  "an  ever-sing- 
ing dirge  of  the  soul  over  the  van- 
ished loved  one  with  the  melancholy 
note  of  which  his  deepest  emotions 
became  concordant  to  the  end  of 
his  days."  Thus  Lincoln  reveals  an 
immortal  love  which  will  attune  all 
the  throbbing  of  his  heart,  however 
profound  and  intense. 

Ann  Rutledge  was  gone  but  the 
love  remained  and  would  not  depart. 
It  could  not  be  eradicated  for  his 
heart  could  not  be  torn  from  him.  It 
was  transformed  or  transfigured  and 
thus  preserved.    It  was  elevated  into 

universality,  a  love  for  all  humanity 

[22] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

and  that  endured.  Lincoln  was 
called  of  God  to  administer  a  na- 
tional discipline  as  severe  as  his  own 
personal  sorrow  and  he  did  it  with 
a  heart  free  from  revenge.  And, 
after  all  those  years,  he  confessed  to 
a  friend,  speaking  of  Ann  Rutledge, 
"I  think  often,  often  of  her  now." 

While  a  member  of  the  legisla- 
ture, Lincoln  removed  to  Springfield, 
April  13,  1837,  which  was  in  his 
district,  and  began  the  practice  of 
law,  having  been  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1836.  He  soon  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Mary  Todd.  She  was 
a  Kentuckian  of  aristocratic  blood, 
and  when  she  and  Lincoln  became 
acquainted,  in  November,  1842,  he 
was  thirty-three  years  of  age  and  she 

[23] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


was  twenty-one.  She  came  from  a 
long  and  distinguished  ancestral  line, 
was  herself  well  educated  and  a 
social  leader.  She  was  a  bright, 
pretty,  vivacious  girl,  could  speak 
French,  was  aristocratic,  ambitious, 
haughty,  alert  and  gay.  She  had  re- 
cently come  from  her  Kentucky  home 
to  live  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Ninian 
W.  Edwards.  She  soon  became  a 
belle  of  the  Illinois  capital  and  for  a 
time  led  the  young  men  of  the  town 
"a  merry  dance/' 

The  hospitalities  of  the  house  were 
naturally  extended  by  Mr.  Edwards, 
one  of  the  "Long  Nine,"  the  delega- 
tion which  had  worked  so  vigorously 
to  have  the  capital  moved  from  Van- 

dalia  to  Springfield,  to  Lincoln,  the 

[24] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

leader  of  that  delegation.  So  Lin- 
coln was  a  frequent  visitor.  He  soon 
became  the  accepted  suitor  to  the 
fascinating  little  girl  from  Ken- 
tucky. Stephen  A.  Douglass,  the 
little  Vermonter,  dashing  and  comely, 
already  a  rival  along  other  lines, 
stepped  in  to  contest  with  Lincoln 
for  the  possession  of  the  trophy.  Un- 
fortunately for  the  romance  of  the 
story,  we  cannot  tell  with  exactness 
just  how  the  contest  was  conducted. 
Says  one  old  resident  of  Springfield: 
"As  a  society  man,  Douglass  was 
infinitely  more  accomplished,  more 
attractive  and  influential  than  Lin- 
coln; and  that  he  should  supplant 
the    latter   in   the    affections    of    the 

proud  and  aristocratic  Miss  Todd  is 

[25] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


not  to  be  marveled  at.  He  was  un- 
remitting in  his  attentions  to  the 
lady,  promenaded  the  streets  arm  in 
arm  with  her,  frequently  passing  Lin- 
coln, and,  in  every  way,  made  plain 
his  intention  to  become  the  latter' s 
rival." 

Some  said  this  was  merely  a  flirta- 
tion on  the  part  of  Miss  Todd  to 
tease  her  lover.  Others  said  Doug- 
lass made  a  proposal  of  marriage  and 
was  refused  on  account  of  his  bad 
morals.  Others  said  she  grew  to  pre- 
fer him,  and  would  have  accepted  his 
offer  if  she  had  not  given  her  prom- 
ise to  Lincoln.  "The  unfortunate 
attitude  she  felt  bound  to  maintain 
between  these  two  young  men,"  re- 
lates   the    writer    of    this    version, 

[26] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

"ended  in  a  spell  of  sickness.  Doug- 
lass, still  hopeful,  was  warm  in  the 
race;  but  Miss  Todd's  physician,  her 
brother-in-law,  Dr.  William  Wallace, 
to  whom  she  confided  the  real  cause 
of  her  sickness,  saw  Douglass  and 
induced  him  to  end  his  pursuit,  which 
he  did  with  great  reluctance/' 

But  the  withdrawal  of  Douglass 
did  not  end  Lincoln's  trouble.  On 
the  day  fixed  for  the  marriage,  Jan. 
1,  1841,  Lincoln  did  not  appear,  and 
of  course  there  was  no  wedding. 
Lincoln's  conscience  would  not  quite 
allow  him  to  marry  her,  and  he  could 
not  face  it,  and  he  did  not,  and  ran 
away  from  it.  On  January  23,  1841, 
he  wrote  John  T.  Stewart,  then  in 
Washington,  as  follows: 

[27] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


"For  not  giving  you  a  general 
summary  of  news,  you  must  pardon 
me;  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  do  so. 
I  am  now  the  most  miserable  man 
living.  If  what  I  feel  were  equally 
distributed  to  the  whole  human 
family  there  would  not  be  one  cheer- 
ful face  on  the  earth.  Whether  I 
shall  ever  be  better  I  cannot  tell;  I 
awfully  forbode  I  shall  not.  To  re- 
main as  I  am  is  impossible;  I  must 
die  or  be  better  it  appears  to  me. 
The  matter  you  speak  of  on  my  ac- 
count you  may  attend  to  as  you  say, 
unless  you  shall  hear  of  my  condition 
forbidding  it.  I  say  this  because  I 
fear  I  shall  be  unable  to  attend  to 
any  business  here,  and  a  change  of 
scene  might  help  me.    If  I  could  be 

[28] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

myself  I  would  rather  remain  at 
home  with  Judge  Logan.  I  can 
write  no  more." 

About  a  year  and  ten  months  aft- 
erwards, friends  of  Lincoln  and  Miss 
Todd  entered  into  negotiations  and 
got  them  to  speaking  together  and 
one  Thursday,  they  agreed  to  be 
married  the  next  day,  Friday,  Nov. 
4,  1842. 

Mrs.    Lincoln    loved    show    and 

power  and  claimed  early  to  have  had 

a  premonition  that  she  was  to  marry 

a   President.      And   in    Lincoln   she 

found  one  who  was  no  less  ambitious 

than  herself.     "I  mean  to  make  him 

President  of  the  United  States/'  she 

said  to  her  Springfield  friends.    "You 

will  see  that  as  I  have  always  told 

[29] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


you,  I  will  be  the  President's  wife." 
Some  writers  have  given  the  im- 
pression that  Lincoln's  marriage  was 
always  unhappy.  One  says  the  days 
he  courted  Miss  Todd  were  among 
the  most  unhappy  of  his  life — except 
after  he  got  her.  To  illustrate  how 
they  enjoyed  married  life,  one  writer 
tells  this  story:  Lincoln  came  home 
one  day  very  tired.  He  laid  himself 
on  the  couch  and  Mrs.  Lincoln 
started,  as  they  say  out  West,  "blaz- 
ing away"  at  him.  One  of  the  neigh- 
bors came  in  and  said  to  him,  "Why 
don't  you  jaw  back,  Abe?"  He  said, 
"That  did  Mary  a  great  deal  of  good 
and  did  me  no  harm."  He  was  a 
real  philosopher.     He  decided  to  be 

true   to  the  vow  he  had  taken  and 

[30] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

take  her  for  better  or  for  worse. 

Some  years  ago  it  was  my  pleasure 
to  have  correspondence  with  Major 
J.  B.  Merwin,  an  intimate  friend  of 
President  Lincoln,  with  whom  he  was 
intimately  known  from  1852  on 
until  the  day  of  his  assassination  in 
Washington.  In  one  of  these  letters, 
Major  Merwin  told  a  story  which 
gives  a  vivid  picture  of  one  of  the 
most  exciting  moments  in  the  White 
House.  I  quote  from  Mr.  Merwin's 
letter  to  give  the  complete  setting  for 
the  story. 

"My  last  interview  with  the  great 
and  good  Lincoln  is  a  long  story.  I 
knew  him  from  1852  on  to  the  day 
he  was  assassinated.  Dined  with  him 
that  day. 

[31] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


'The  cabinet  meeting  ended  early, 
a  little  before  12  o'clock.  I  left  him 
after  dinner,  about  2:30,  for  New 
York,  on  a  special  mission,  to  see 
Horace  Greely  and  submit  to  him  a 
paper  Mr.  Lincoln  had  written.  Lee 
had  surrendered.  Jefferson  Davis  was 
a  fugitive.  The  great  heart  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  was  burdened  with  the 
problem  as  to  how  best  to  dispose  of 
the  180,000  colored  troops  with  arms 
in  their  hands.  Major  General  Ben 
Butler  said,  "Mr.  President,  I  can 
help  you  solve  that  problem.  The 
terms  of  enlistment  of  these  troops 
will  not  expire  for  a  year  and  a  half. 
As  a  military  measure  take  them  to 
Panama    and   build    the   canal   with 

them.     Make  me  a  Major  General, 

[32] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

put  me  in  command  and  we  will 
take  them  over  and  build  and  own 
the  canal.  As  fast  as  possible  we 
will  take  their  families,  the  climate 
is  about  the  same  as  they  are  used  to, 
give  them  some  land  and  we  will 
dig  and  own  the  canal.  'What  does 
Seward  say?  What  does  or  what 
will  Congress  say?  All  favorable, 
what  will  Greely  say?'  He  was 
more  afraid  of  Greely  than  of  Jeffer- 
son Davis.  I  had  known  Greely  well, 
had  been  on  several  missions  to  Mr. 
Greely  for  him.  I  could  and  did 
go  many  times  where  and  when  his 
secretaries  could  not  go,  for  they 
were  known. 

"I  was  not  especially  known.     I 

was  on  General  Dix's  Staff  in  New 

[33] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


York.  Had  charge  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers  passing  to  hos- 
pitals through  the  city.  He  tele- 
graphed General  Dix  to  send  me 
to  Washington  by  first  train.  I  left 
New  York  Tuesday  night,  reached 
Washington,  Wednesday  a.  m.  Ten 
thousand  people  were  around  the 
White  House.  I  held  the  telegram 
up.  He  saw  it,  and  said,  'Come  at 
10  tonight/  It  was  12  at  night  be- 
fore he  could  get  away  and  lock  up. 
We  worked  until  3  a.  m.  and  then 
retired.  Thursday  night  we  worked 
on  the  proposition  until  3  a.  m.  and 
still  it  did  not  quite  suit  him.  Fri- 
day was  'Cabinet  Meeting.5  He 
locked  all  the  doors  at  its  close  and 

ordered  our  dinner  brought  up.     He 

[34] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

finished  the  paper.  We  ate  dinner 
and  he  read  it  over.  One  door  was 
not  locked.  Mrs.  Lincoln  came  and 
said,  'Abe,  the  Ford's  Theater  peo- 
ple have  tendered  us  a  box  for  this 
eve  and  I  have  accepted  it.  The 
Grants  are  going  with  us  and  make 
no  other  engagement.'  Mr.  Lincoln 
said,  'Mary,  I  don't  think  we  ought  to 
go  to  the  Theater.  Do  you  remem- 
ber it  is  "Good  Friday,"  a  religious 
day  with  a  great  many  people,  and 
I  don't  think  we  ought  to  go  to  the 
Theater  tonight.'  Mrs.  Lincoln  said, 
'We  are  going/  and  with  that  she 
slammed  the  door  enough  to  take  it 
off  the  hinges.  'You  see  how  it  is,' 
he  said,  'We  must  not  have  a  scene 
today/  " 

[35] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


To  relate  such  dramatic  instances 
and  say  nothing  of  the  other  side  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  home  life  would  be 
to  give  a  wrong  impression,  yet  little 
is  said  of  the  quiet  family  life  of 
the  President.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln did  enjoy  their  home  and  their 
four  boys.  One  died  in  infancy  and 
one  died  in  the  White  House  when 
the  great  Civil  War  was  on  the  heart 
of  the  President,  and  he  was  brought 
down  almost  to  the  point  of  being 
crushed  by  the  death  of  "Little 
Willie.'5  And  it  was  Major  Mer- 
win  who  spoke  of  President  Lin- 
coln's love  of  home  and  family,  and 
above  all,  love  of  God:  "For  he  came 
to  be  a  profoundly  religious  man  so 

that  one  who  knew  him  and  looked 

[36] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

into  his  face  and  soul,  as  I  did,  saw 
the  lovliest,  the  loftiest,  the  noblest, 
the  most  sublime  character  that  has 
ever  been  known  in  the  world  since 
the  Nazarene  left  it." 


1 37 


THE  BOYHOOD 

AND 

LOVE  AFFAIRS 

OF 

GEORGE 
WASHINGTON 


THE    BOYHOOD    AND    LOVE 

AFFAIRS    OF    GEORGE 

WASHINGTON 

George  Washington  was  born 
February  22,  1732,  at  Bridges  Creek, 
Virginia.  The  home  was  one  of  the 
primitive  farmhouses  of  Virginia  and 
commanded  a  view  over  many  miles 
of  the  Potomac.  Not  long  after  the 
birth  of  George,  the  family  removed 
to  an  estate  in  Stafford  County  op- 
posite Fredericksburg.  The  house 
stood  on  a  rising  ground  overlook- 
ing a  meadow  which  bordered  the 
Rappahannock.  This  was  the  home 
of  George's  boyhood;  the  meadow 
was  his  playground  and  the  scene  of 

his  early  athletic  sports. 

[41] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


In  those  days  the  means  of  in- 
struction in  Virginia  were  limited, 
and  it  was  the  custom  among  the 
wealthy  planters  to  send  their  sons 
to  England  to  complete  their  educa- 
tion. Augustine  Washington  sent 
his  oldest  son,  Lawrence,  then  about 
fifteen  years  of  age.  George  was 
yet  in  early  childhood,  being  four- 
teen years  younger.  He  attended  the 
old  field  school  house,  humble  in  its 
pretensions  and  kept  by  one  of  his 
father's  tenants  named  Hobby,  who 
was  also  sexton  of  the  parish.  His 
instruction  was  simple,  consisting  of 
reading,  writing  and  ciphering.  But 
George  had  an  excellent  father  and 
mother  and  thus  had  the  benefit  of 
mental  and  moral  culture  at  home. 

[42] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

He  was  taught  high  maxims  of  re- 
ligion and  virtue  and  imbued  with  a 
spirit  of  justice  and  generosity  and 
love  of  truth. 

When  George  was  about  seven  or 
eight  years  of  age,  his  brother  Law- 
rence returned  from  England,  a  well- 
educated  and  accomplished  young 
man.  Lawrence  was  fond  of  George, 
whose  dawning  intelligence  and  per- 
fect rectitude  won  his  regard  and 
George  looked  up  to  the  older  brother 
as  a  model.  This  interchange  of  af- 
fection had  a  great  influence  on 
George's  later  life.  It  helps  us  under- 
stand the  martial  spirit  of  George  in 
his  boyish  days.  Spanish  depreda- 
tions on  British  commerce  had  re- 
cently  provoked    reprisals;    Admiral 

[43] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


Vernon  had,  as  commander-in-chief 
of  the  West  Indies,  captured  Porto 
Bello  on  the  Isthmus  of  Darien. 
The  Spaniards  were  preparing  a  re- 
venge and  the  French  were  fitting 
out  ships  to  aid  them.  Lawrence  se- 
cured a  captain's  commission  in  one 
of  the  regiments  of  four  battalions 
which  was  raised  in  the  colonies  and 
sent  to  join  the  British  troops  at 
Jamaica.  Lawrence  served  in  the 
joint  expeditions  of  Admiral  Vernon 
and  General  Wentworth  and  won 
the  friendship  of  both  officers  and, 
after  returning  home,  it  was  his  in- 
tention to  rejoin  his  regiment  in  Eng- 
land and  seek  promotion  in  the  army. 
Circumstances  changed  his  plan.    He 

fell   in   love  with  Anne,   the   eldest 

[44] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLI 

daughter  of  the  Honorable  William 
Fairfax.  They  became  engaged  but 
their  marriage  was  delayed  by  the 
death  of  Augustine  Washington,  who 
died  at  forty-nine  years  of  age. 
George  had  been  away  on  a  visit  and 
just  returned  in  time  to  receive  a 
parting  look  of  affection. 

Augustine  Washington  left  large 
possessions,  distributed  by  will  among 
the  children.  Lawrence  received  the 
estate  on  the  Potomac  with  other  real 
property  and  shares  in  iron  works. 
Augustine,  Jr.,  the  second  son  by  the 
father's  first  marriage,  received  the 
old  homestead  and  estate  in  West- 
moreland. The  children  by  the  sec- 
ond   marriage    were    severally    well 

provided  for,  and  George,  when  he 

[45] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


became  of  age,  was  to  have  the  house 
and  lands  on  the  Rappahannock. 

Three  months  after  the  father's 
death,  Lawrence  and  Miss  Fairfax 
were  married.  Augustine,  Jr.,  mar- 
ried Anne  Aylett  of  Westmoreland 
County.  Lawrence  gave  up  all  thot 
of  foreign  service  and  settled  on  his 
estate  on  the  Potomac,  which  he 
named  Mount  Vernon,  in  honor  of 
the  Admiral.  Augustine  moved  to 
his  homestead  on  Bridges  Creek. 

George  was  now  eleven  years  old 

and  was  under  the  guardianship  of 

his  mother,  who  governed  the  family 

strictly,  but  kindly.    She  taught  him 

to  control  his  temper  and  to  conduct 

himself    equitably    and    justly.      In 

order  that  George  could  have  the  ad- 

[46] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

vantage  of  a  superior  school,  he  was 
sent  to  live  with  Augustine  at  Bridges 
Creek.  His  education  there  was  plain 
and  practical.  He  did  not  study  the 
learned  languages  nor  show  any  in- 
clination for  such  things  as  rhetoric 
or  literature.  The  object  of  his  train- 
ing seemed  to  be  for  business  and  his 
manuscript  school  books  still  exist, 
and  are  models  of  neatness  and  ac- 
curacy. Of  course,  he  was  a  real 
boy.  One  of  his  ciphering-books,  pre- 
served in  the  library  at  Mount  Ver- 
non, included  pictures  of  birds  and 
profiles  of  faces,  probably  intended 
for  those  of  some  of  his  schoolmates. 
Before  he  was  thirteen  years  of  age, 
he  had  copied  into  a  volume,  forms 
for  all  kinds  of  mercantile  and  legal 

[47] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


papers,  bills  of  exchange,  notes, 
deeds,  bonds  and  the  like.  This 
training  gave  him  a  lawyer's  skill  in 
drafting  documents  and  a  merchant's 
exactness  in  handling  accounts — all 
valuable  later  in  handling  his  estates, 
in  making  accounts  with  the  govern- 
ment and  in  all  of  his  other  trans- 
actions. 

George  gave  attention  to  physical 
as  well  as  mental  matters.  He  prac- 
ticed all  kinds  of  athletic  exercises, 
such  as  running,  leaping,  wrestling, 
pitching  quoits  and  tossing  bars.  His 
frame  had,  from  infancy,  been  large 
and  powerful  and  he  excelled  most 
of  his  playmates  in  contests  of 
strength.  He  was  a  leader  and  was 
usually  the  umpire  in  disputes. 

[48] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

Lawrence  continued  to  take  a  pa- 
ternal interest  in  George's  affairs 
and  had  him  frequently  as  a  guest  at 
Mount  Vernon.  These  visits  brought 
George  into  familiar  intercourse  with 
the  family  of  William  Fairfax,  Law- 
rence's father-in-law,  who  lived  just 
a  few  miles  below  Mount  Vernon. 
Mr.  Fairfax  was  a  man  of  liberal  edu- 
cation and  intrinsic  worth.  He  had 
seen  the  world  and  had  enjoyed 
varied  and  adventurous  experiences. 
The  intimacy  with  such  a  family 
meant  much  to  George.  Here  were 
united  the  simplicity  of  rural  and 
colonial  life  and  European  refine- 
ment, and  this  had  a  beneficial  effect 
in  building  the  character  and  man- 
ners   of   the    home-bred    school    boy. 

[49] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


No  doubt  it  was  his  intercourse  with 
the  Fairfax  family  and  his  desire  to 
be  well  behaved  in  their  society  that 
set  him  to  compiling  a  code  of  morals 
and  manners  which  still  exists  in  a 
manuscript  in  his  own  handwriting, 
entitled,  "Rules  for  Behavior  in 
Company  and  Conversation/5  Some 
of  the  rules  for  personal  deportment 
extend  to  such  trivial  matters  and  are 
so  quaint  and  formal  as  to  make 
one  smile.  In  the  main,  however,  a 
better  manual  of  conduct  could  not 
be  given  to  young  people.  The  book 
evinces  that  rigid  propriety  and  self 
control  to  which  he  subjected  himself. 
But  there  were  also  other  influ- 
ences that  worked  on  George  during 
his    visit    at    Mount    Vernon.      His 

[50] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

brother  Lawrence  was  Adjutant- 
General  of  the  district,  with  the  rank 
of  Major,  and  a  regular  salary,  and 
he  retained  some  of  his  military  in- 
clinations. It  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  some  of  Lawrence's  comrades 
who  had  served  with  him  in  the  West 
Indies  were  visitors  at  Mount  Ver- 
non. An  occasional  ship  of  war  would 
anchor  in  the  Potomac.  The  officers 
would  be  entertained  by  Lawrence 
and  Mr.  Fairfax. 

Thus  George  heard  the  conversa- 
tion about  scenes  on  sea  and  shore, 
and  stories  of  cruisings  in  the  East 
and  West  Indies,  and  campaigns 
against  the  pirates.  It  is  probable 
that  in  this  way  there  was  produced 
the  desire  to  enter  the  navy  at  four- 

[51] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


teen  years  of  age.  Lawrence  and 
Mr.  Fairfax  encouraged  the  inclina- 
tion, for  they  considered  the  naval 
service  a  popular  path  to  fame  and 
fortune.  George  was  old  enough  to 
enter  the  navy,  but  the  great  diffi- 
culty was  to  procure  the  assent  of  his 
mother.  Finally,  however,  she  agreed. 
A  midshipman  warrant  was  obtained 
and  it  is  even  said  that  the  luggage 
of  George  was  actually  on  board  of 
a  warship,  anchored  in  the  river  be- 
low Mount  Vernon.  At  the  last  hour 
the  mother  wavered.  George  was 
her  eldest  born.  He  was  a  son  who 
promised,  by  his  strong  and  stead- 
fast character,  to  be  a  support  to  her 
and  the  younger  children.    She  could 

not    endure    the    thot    of    his    being 

[52] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

severed  from  her  and  exposed  to  all 
the  hardships  and  perils  of  such  a 
dangerous  profession.  Finally,  at 
her  remonstrances,  the  scheme  was 
given  up  and  George  returned  to 
school  and  continued  his  studies  for 
two  more  years.  He  gave  especial 
attention  to  mathematics  and  other 
branches  calculated  to  fit  him  for 
civil  or  military  service.  One  of  these 
subjects  was  surveying,  and  he 
trained  himself  in  the  work  by  mak- 
ing surveys  about  the  neighborhood 
and  keeping  regular  field  books  in 
which  the  boundaries  and  measure- 
ments of  the  fields  surveyed  were 
carefully  entered.  Diagrams  were 
made    with    neatness   and   exactness, 

and  one  would  judge  that  the  whole 

[53] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


related  to  important  land  transac- 
tions, instead  of  being  mere  school 
exercises.  One  is  greatly  impressed 
with  the  perseverance  and  complete- 
ness in  all  his  undertakings.  Noth- 
ing was  left  half  done  or  done  hur- 
riedly. He  later  went  to  his  com- 
plicated and  difficult  tasks  and  found 
time  to  do  his  work  and  do  it  well. 
In  one  of  these  manuscript  mem- 
orials of  his  practical  studies  and  ex- 
ercises were  found  some  documents 
quite  different  than  his  regular 
studies.  These  are  evidences,  in  his 
own  handwriting,  that,  before  he  was 
fifteen  years  of  age,  he  had  conceived 
a  passion  for  some  unknown  beauty. 
This  so  disturbed  his  mind  that  he 
expressed  himself  as  being  really  un- 

[54] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

happy.  We  do  not  know  why  this 
juvenile  attachment  was  a  source  of 
unhappiness.  Perhaps  the  girl  looked 
upon  George  as  a  mere  schoolboy 
and  treated  him  as  such;  or  his  own 
shyness  may  have  been  the  cause  of 
his  trouble.  Perhaps  his  "rules  for 
behavior  and  conversation55  made  him 
feel  formal  and  ungainly  when  he 
most  desired  to  please.  Contempora- 
ries said  that  in  later  years  he  was 
apt  to  be  silent  and  embarrassed  in 
female  society.  "He  was  a  very 
bashful  young  man/5  said  an  old 
lady,  whom  he  used  to  visit  when 
they  were  both  in  their  non-age.  "I 
used  often  to  wish  that  he  would 
talk  more.55 

Whatever    may    have     been    the 

[55] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


cause,  this  early  affair  seems  to  have 
been  a  source  of  great  discomfort  to 
him.  He  could  not  forget  even  after 
he  left  to  go  to  school  in  1747  and 
went  to  reside  with  his  brother  Law- 
rence at  Mount  Vernon.  There  he 
studied  and  practiced  surveying,  but 
he  was  disturbed  by  the  memories 
of  the  unknown  beauty.  The  waste 
pages  of  his  journal  show  several  at- 
tempts to  force  out  his  sorrows  in 
verse.  He  was  not  of  a  poetical 
temperament  and  he  wrote  common- 
place rhymes,  such  as  boy  lovers  of 
that  age  are  apt  to  write.  He  be- 
wailed his  "poor,  restless  heart, 
wounded  by  Cupid's  dart,"  and  he 
said,  "I  am  bleeding  for  one  who  re- 
mains pitiless  of  my  grief  and  woes." 

[561 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

Some  of  the  verses  indicate  that 
he  never  told  of  his  love,  being  pre- 
vented by  bashfulness. 

"Ah,  woe  is  me,  that  I  should  love 

and  conceal, 
Long  have  I  wished  and  never  dare 

reveal." 

Indeed,  it  is  very  difficult  for  us 
to  think  of  the  cool  and  dignified 
Washington,  the  champion  of  Ameri- 
can liberty,  a  woe-worn  lover  in  the 
days  of  his  youth — "Sighing  like  a 
furnace/5  and  indicting  plaintive 
verses  about  the  groves  of  Mount 
Vernon.  Yet  how  this  does  show  his 
deeper  feelings  and  show  his  reserve 

even  while  his  heart  throbbed  with 

[57] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


the  impulses  of  human  nature  known 
so  well  to  all  of  us. 

When  George  was  sixteen  years  of 
age,  he  no  longer  seemed  a  boy.  His 
merits  were  known  and  appreciated 
by  the  Fairfax  family.  He  was  tall, 
athletic  and  manly  for  his  age.  He 
was  grave,  frank  and  modest.  About 
this  time,  George  William  Fairfax, 
twenty-two  years  of  age  and  edu- 
cated in  England,  married  a  daughter 
of  Colonel  Carey,  of  Hampton,  on 
James  River.  He  had  brought  home 
his  bride  and  her  sister  to  his  father's 
house.  The  charms  of  Miss  Carey, 
sister  of  the  bride,  caused  a  fluttering 
in  George's  bosom.  This  was,  how- 
ever, constantly  rebuked  by  the  mem- 
ory of  his  former  passion.     This,  at 

[58] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

least,  is  the  inference  that  one  gath- 
ers from  letters  to  his  youthful  con- 
fidants, rough  drafts  of  which  ap- 
peared in  his  journal. 

To  one  whom  he  addressed  as  his 
dear  friend  Robin,  he  wrote: 

"My  residence  is  at  present  at  his 
lordship's,  where  I  might,  was  my 
heart  disengaged,  pass  my  time  very 
pleasantly,  as  there's  a  very  agree- 
able young  lady  lives  in  the  same 
house  (Col.  Geo.  Fairfax's  wife's 
sister)  ;  but  as  that's  only  adding  fuel 
to  the  fire,  it  makes  me  the  more 
uneasy,  for  by  often  and  unavoidably 
being  in  company  with  her,  revives 
my  former  passion  for  your  Lowland 
Beauty;  whereas  was  I  to  live  more 
retired  from  young  women,  I  might 

[59] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


in  some  measure  alleviate  my  sor- 
rows, by  burying  that  chaste  and 
troublesome  passion  in  the  grave  of 
obilvion,"  etc. 

Similar  avowals  he  made  to  an- 
other of  his  young  correspondents, 
whom  he  styled  "Dear  friend  John," 
as  also  to  a  female  confidant  styled 
"Dear  Sally/'  to  whom  he  acknowl- 
edged that  the  company  of  the  "very 
agreeable  young  lady,  sister-in-law 
of  Colonel  George  Fairfax/'  in  a 
great  measure  cheered  his  sorrow  and 
dejectedness. 

The  object  of  this  early  passion  is 

not    positively    known.       Tradition 

states    that   the    "Lowland    Beauty" 

was  a  Miss  Grimes  of  Westmoreland, 

afterwards  Mrs.  Lee,  and  mother  of 

[601 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

General  Henry  Lee,  who  was  known 
as  Light  Horse  Harry,  and  who  was 
always  a  favorite  with  Washington, 
perhaps  from  the  recollections  of  his 
early  tenderness  for  the  mother. 

It  was  February  4,  1756,  that 
Colonel  Washington,  now  Comman- 
der-in-Chief of  Virginia's  troops,  left 
Colonel  Adam  Stephen  in  command 
of  the  troops  and  set  out  in  company 
with  Captain  Mercer  and  Captain 
Stewart  on  a  mission  to  see  Major 
General  Shirley,  who  had  succeeded 
Braddock  in  the  general  command  of 
the  colonies.  The  journey  of  five 
hundred  miles  was  made  on  horse- 
back in  the  depth  of  winter.  Phila- 
delphia, New  York  and  Boston  were 

visited.     After  remaining  in  Boston 

[61] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


for  ten  days,  Colonel  Washington  re- 
turned to  New  York.  Tradition 
gives  very  different  motives  from 
those  of  business  for  his  two  sojourns 
in  New  York.  He  found  there  an 
old  friend  and  schoolmate,  Beverly 
Robinson,  who  was  happily  and  pros- 
perously living  with  a  young  and 
wealthy  bride,  a  niece  and  heiress  of 
Adolphus  Philipse,  a  wealthy  land 
owner  living  on  the  Hudson.  Colonel 
Washington,  an  honored  guest  in 
Mr.  Robinson's  home,  met  Miss 
Mary  Philipse,  Mrs.  Robinson's  sis- 
ter, a  young  lady  of  great  personal 
attraction  as  well  as  reputed  wealth. 
That  Washington  was  an  open 
admirer  of  Miss  Philipse  is  an  his- 
torical   fact.      Tradition    is   that   he 

[62] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

sought  her  hand  and  was  refused,  but 
that  is  hardly  probable.  It  is  true 
that  Washington  had  been  living  a 
life  of  activity  and  care.  His  time 
had  been  spent,  for  the  most  part,  in 
the  wilderness  and  on  the  frontier, 
far  from  feminine  society,  but  he  was 
cultured  and  refined  and  his  military 
rank,  his  early  laurels  and  dis- 
tinguished presence  were  all  calcu- 
lated to  win  favor  in  feminine  eyes. 
Perhaps  he  hesitated  to  urge  suit  with 
a  lady  in  high  society  and  surrounded 
by  admirers.  At  any  rate,  he  was 
probably  called  away  by  public  duties 
before  he  had  sufficient  opportunity 
to  really  press  his  case.  While  at- 
tending the  opening  of  the  legisla- 
ture at  Williamsburg,  where  he  was 

[63] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


urging  protection  of  the  frontier  and 
capture  of  Fort  Duquesne,  he  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  a  friend  and  con- 
fidant in  New  York,  warning  him 
to  hurry  to  New  York  before  it  was 
too  late,  as  Captain  Morris,  who  had 
been  his  fellow  aide-de-camp  under 
Braddock,  was  winning  favor  with 
Miss  Philipse.  Duty  called  Wash- 
ington elsewhere  and,  in  the  moment 
of  urgency,  the  claim  of  the  heart 
was  forgotten  or  at  least  ignored. 
Washington  hastened  to  Winchester 
and  Captain  Morris  won  the  prize. 

Operations  in  preparation  for  the 
expedition  against  Fort  Duquesne 
went  slowly  on.  Brigadier-General 
Forbes,  who  was  commander-in-chief, 

was  detained  in  Philadelphia.   Wash- 

[64] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

ington  in  the  meantime  gathered  to- 
gether his  scattered  regiments  at 
Winchester,  some  from  a  distance  of 
two  hundred  miles,  and  he  there  dis- 
ciplined his  recruits.  He  had  a  total 
of  nineteen  hundred  men  besides 
about  seven  hundred  Indians  who 
had  joined  his  camp  in  prospect  of 
a  successful  campaign.  Washington 
was  in  great  need  of  arms,  tents,  field 
equipage  and  other  requisites.  Re- 
peated letters  stating  the  desperate 
needs  of  the  Virginia  troops  had 
availed  nothing.  He  was,  therefore, 
ordered  by  the  quarter-master  general 
of  the  forces  under  General  Forbes 
to  hurry  to  Williamsburg  to  lay  the 
case  before  the  council.     He  set  off 

promptly  on  horseback,  attended  by 

[65] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


Bishop,  his  military  servant.  It  cer- 
tainly proved  an  eventful  journey, 
though  not  in  a  military  point  of 
view.  He  met  a  Mr.  Chamberlayne 
while  he  was  crossing  a  ferry  and,  in 
the  spirit  of  Virginia  hospitality, 
Mr.  Chamberlayne  claimed  Colonel 
Washington  as  his  guest.  Washing- 
ton was  impatient  to  reach  Williams- 
burg and  accomplish  his  mission  and 
Mr.  Chamberlayne  had  great  diffi- 
culty in  holding  him  even  long 
enough  for  dinner. 

At  Mr.  Chamberlayne's  one  of  the 
guests  was  a  young  widow,  Mrs. 
Martha  Custis.  Her  husband,  John 
Parke  Custis,  had  been  dead  about 
three  years  and  he  had  left  her  two 

young  children  and  a  large  fortune. 

[66] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

Mrs.  Custis  was  a  small  woman  of 
agreeable  and  captivating  manners, 
and  again  Washington  proved  to 
be  quickly  susceptible  to  feminine 
charms.  Whether  he  had  ever  met 
her  before,  we  do  not  know;  prob- 
ably not  during  her  widowhood,  as 
he  had  been  on  the  frontier  almost 
continually.  His  heart  seems  to  have 
been  taken  unawares  and  the  dinner 
was  all  too  short.  The  afternoon 
melted  away  like  a  dream.  Bishop 
followed  orders  Washington  had 
given  when  they  stopped  and  the 
horses  waited  at  the  door. 

The  Colonel,  for  once  in  his  life, 
was  loitering  in  the  path  of  duty! 
It  was  not  until  the  next  morning 

that  Washington   was   again   in   the 

[67] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


saddle  on  the  way  to  Williamsburg. 
Fortunately  Mrs.  Custis'  home  was 
not  far  from  that  city,  so  Washing- 
ton was  able  to  visit  her  on  frequent 
intervals  of  affairs.  However,  he  did 
not  have  much  time  for  courtship. 
He  was  soon  called  back  to  Win- 
chester and  he  hesitated  to  leave 
things  in  suspense.  Some  more  enter- 
prising or  less  busy  rival  might  sup- 
plant him  as  in  his  previous  experi- 
ence. He  made  the  most  of  this 
opportunity.  When  he  left  they  were 
engaged.  The  marriage  was  to  take 
place  as  soon  as  the  Fort  Duquesne 
campaign  was  ended. 

For  three  months  after  the  mar- 
riage, Washington  lived  at  the  home 

of   Mrs.    Washington.      During   the 

[68] 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN 

period,  he  took  a  seat  in  the  House 
of  Burgesses.  Mr.  Custis,  the  first 
husband  of  Mrs.  Washington,  had 
left  large  landed  property  and  forty- 
five  thousand  pounds  sterling  in 
money.  One-third  fell  to  the  widow 
in  her  own  right.  The  other  two- 
thirds  went  equally  to  the  two  chil- 
dren— a  boy  of  six  and  a  girl  of  four 
years  of  age. 

The  Court  made  Washington 
guardian,  and  he  fulfilled  the  sacred 
trust  in  a  faithful  manner.  He  be- 
came a  parent  as  well  as  guardian  to 
them.  The  marriage  caused  Wash- 
ington to  give  up  all  traveling  in- 
clinations. He  had  long  had  a  de- 
sire to  visit  England.     His  military 

services   would  have   insured  him  a 

[69] 


THE  LOVE  AFFAIRS  OF 


hearty  reception.  Some  have  sug- 
gested that  the  favor  of  the  English 
government  on  such  an  occasion 
might  have  changed  his  career,  but 
he  was  a  true  patriot  and  had  at 
heart  the  true  interests  of  his  coun- 
try. The  happy  home  was  a  new  joy 
in  his  life-  In  a  letter  from  Mount 
Vernon  he  wrote:  "I  am  now,  I  be- 
lieve, fixed  in  this  seat,  with  an 
agreeable  partner  for  life,  and  I  hope 
to  build  more  happiness  in  retirement 
than  ever  experienced  in  the  wide 
and  bustling  world/' 


[70 


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